Relaxing coal pollution, methane flaring rules: This week in Congress

Last week was a busy one for people
watching the federal government’s rules on energy and the environment.
With the opening of a new administration, the Republican-dominated
Congress has been quick to kill regulations from the previous
administration and enact new ones of its own. Below we take a glance at
some of the most noteworthy actions taken by the executive branch and
Congress this week.

1. Rolling back the stream protection rule: Congress
wasted no time wielding a previously little-used rule called the
Congressional Review Act, which allows the legislative branch to repeal
rules and regulations passed in recent months. According to the Federation of American Scientists (via Vox), the 115th Congress
can now overturn rules submitted on or after June 13, 2016 in an
expedited reversal process. The stream protection rule, finalized in late December,
is among those rules that found itself on the chopping block. The rule
required coal companies that had finished mining in an area to restore
the the land to conditions that existed before the mining began, with an
emphasis on streams and waterways. Opponents of the rule claimed that the 1997 Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act,
which only forbids “material damage to the environment to the extent
that it is technologically and economically feasible,” is sufficient to
protect the environment around coal mining operations and that the newer
stream protection rule unduly burdens mining companies. Both the House
and the Senate voted to roll back the stream protection rule this week.
Now the resolution to undo it officially awaits the signature of
President Trump.

2. The resource-extraction rule:
This rule also saw the blunt end of the Congressional Review Act this
week. The rule got its start in 2010 as the Cardin-Lugar Amendment, a
bipartisan amendment to the Dodd-Frank Act requiring oil, gas, and
mining companies to reveal what they paid to foreign governments. Those companies sued over the rule,
and a federal judge tossed out the first version of it in 2013. The
Obama Administration started the rule-making process again, but the
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) only enacted it in June 2016,
leaving it vulnerable to the Congressional Review Act today. Extraction
companies said the rule put them at a competitive disadvantage, and Rex
Tillerson, the former Exxon-Mobile CEO who was sworn in as Secretary of
State this week, lobbied hard against the rule in 2010. This leads some to question whether Tillerson’s business connections in foreign countries jeopardizes
his ability to work as Secretary of State. However, the resolution to
remove this rule was approved by both the House and the Senate this
week, so it also awaits Trump’s signature.

3. Methane flaring rules: House Republicans and three Democrats again used the Congressional Review Act to vote to overturn
an Interior Department rule that would have required oil and gas
companies operating on public and tribal lands to control their methane
emissions. The rule was announced in November
and targeted flaring—the practice of burning methane emissions at oil
wells—as well as venting and leaks from fossil fuel extraction. The rule
requires oil and gas companies to capture errant methane instead of
burning or venting it. It also standardizes procedures for inspecting
operations for methane leaks and for paying royalties on captured
natural gas back to the US government.

Opponents say this rule is too costly to the oil and gas companies. Those companies tried challenging the legality of the rule in court over the winter,
but a Wyoming-based federal judge ruled that the Bureau of Land
Management (a part of the Interior Department) does indeed have the
power to set rules on pollution created on public lands. But if the
Senate joins the House in voting to overturn the methane flaring rules
next week, then oil and gas companies will have their way despite the
judge’s ruling.

4. Public lands bills:
In late January, US Representative Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) introduced a
bill to sell off 3.3 million acres of public land in the west. Chaffetz
claimed that the land, which can be used for hunting, hiking, and
camping, as well as leased out to oil and gas companies, served “no purpose for taxpayers.” But after outcry from both conservation groups and hunting and angling organizations, Chaffetz withdrew the bill,
called HR 621. Chaffetz is still pursuing a bill called the Local
Enforcement for Local Lands Act, or HR 622, which would remove BLM and
Forest Service law enforcement from public lands, “instead directing
local law enforcement agencies such as sheriff’s offices to patrol the
lands,” the Casper Star-Tribune writes. The paper adds, “More than 27 million acres of land in Wyoming is managed by the Forest Service or BLM.”

On Monday, Representative Paul A. Gosar (R-AZ)
also introduced HJ Res. 46, which would again use the Congressional
Review Act to repeal updates to rules
that allow the National Park Service to manage private drilling and
mining in 40 parks across the country. The rules were enacted a week
before the election and govern “split-estate ownership,” where the
National Park owns surface resources, but not the underground resources
in a park. “If Congress repeals these rules, drilling could occur in
national parks with little more than bare-minimum state regulations,”
the National Parks Conservation Association wrote.
“The Park Service will have essentially no authority over oil and gas
development proposed inside national parks. Leaks and spills could go
unpunished without NPS authority to enforce safety standards.” The bill
has not been voted on and was referred to the House Committee on Natural
Resources this week.

5. Confirmations advancing:
Democrats on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee
boycotted a vote on the nomination of Scott Pruitt to head the EPA for
two days before their Republican counterparts, who have the majority, suspended committee rules to approve Pruitt’s nomination on a roll-call vote, 11-0. Pruitt, the former Oklahoma Attorney General who had sued the EPA 14 times in his tenure, claimed in his confirmation hearing that he believed in climate change but was ambiguous about whether the changing climate is human-caused. Decades of climate research rejects this
equivocation. A vote on Pruitt’s nomination now goes to the full
Senate. The Senate Energy Committee also voted this week to approve the
nominations of Rick Perry for Energy Secretary and Ryan Zinke
for Secretary of the Interior, although without the drama of a rules
suspension. The nominations of those two politicians will also be
subject to a full vote from the Senate.